Staying Healthy

I haven't done a very good job of staying healthy this week. It's a bad time to fall off the wagon as I have my first 30k race tomorrow. Send good thoughts to me at 8 am as I take the first step on an 18-mile journey! Or actually, send good vibes to me around 9:30 and 10:30 as that's probably when I'll be dying and need it the most. =)

I eat junk food when stressed and with the whole "writing drama" this week, I've been bad. Lots of ice-cream. Plus, I've had a hamstring pull I've been nursing for about a month now. I've been icing it, taking ibuprofen and it was finally just about healed. Then I did a trail run on Wednesday, tripped over a root, overextended the leg to keep from falling face first on the ground and now I'm back at square one. My trail running partners have told me sometimes it's best to just fall--less injury that way. This would have been one of those times but it's hard to avoid the natural instinct of doing everything possible to catch yourself.

I ran 3 miles on Thursday and could feel the leg pulling, especially on the itty-bitty hills we did. Phooey. It's not bad enough not to race though. Nowhere near that. Just a constant annoying twinge. Luckily, there's not many hills on tomorrow's course. One short, nasty one that we'll run twice and that's about it.

I would love to do a 9-minute pace but that's probably pushing it. The goal for me is to go out SLOW. If  I run the first two miles at a slow, steady pace I am so much stronger for the rest of my run. But it's hard to plod along at the beginning with everyone whipping past you.

I mentioned this to one of my trail running partners who's been doing marathons and ultra's for over 30 years now. He told me he'll talk to young kids in their 20's who start out fast. He'll tell them, "You can beat me in a 5 or 10k and you might even be ahead of me at mile 15. But when we hit mile 20, your ass is mine."

I love it! It's my new mantra. As I jog slow and watch people pass I'm just going to think, "At mile 16, your ass is mine."

Cheers,

Dena